On Feb. 9, 2011, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) celebrated the official opening of the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building.

The architecturally significant structure, located on the university’s Parnassus campus, is the headquarters for the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF. The program, which extends across all UCSF campuses, is one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in the United States.

The $123 million building, paid for with state and private funds, is an outgrowth of California’s effort to advance stem cell research in the face of more than a decade of restrictive federal funding policies. The idea for the building was conceived of in 2004 by leaders of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state agency established to administer the $3 billion, tax-payer supported fund for stem cell research. The CIRM leadership envisioned the creation of stem cell buildings at universities throughout California. Because no federal funds were used to construct the facility or purchase equipment within it, the research is immune to variations in federal funding policy regarding human embryonic stem cell research.

The State and philanthropists played a critical role in the funding for the UCSF building, noted Desmond-Hellmann. In 2006, Ray and Dagmar Dolby contributed $16 million to launch the university’s fundraising campaign for the facility. In 2007, UCSF received a highly competitive $34.9 million grant from CIRM. In 2008, UCSF received a $25 million grant from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Two weeks ago, UCSF received a $20 million donation from the Dolbys. The university has $12 million left to raise.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF is one of the largest and most comprehensive programs of its kind in the United States. It encompasses 125 labs made up of scientists exploring the earliest stages of animal and human development. The goal of these studies is to understand how disorders and diseases develop and how they could be treated with the knowledge of, and use of, stem cells and other early-stage cells.